Campaign of the Month:
September 2013

Heroes Unchained

Air Wolf

Now the flagship of the Stoneclaw moot, Air Wolf was commissioned and built for Tago Steelskull following the Second Theran-Throalic War. The ship was built strictly for war, with a long, sleek wooden hull, said to be from the steeley Iron Wood trees that dot the scraggly landscape of the Twilight Peaks. Though many shipwrights claim this is impossible because the wood from such trees is considered too hard to use for lumber, that is the rumor that persists. Nobody knows what shipwrights built the ship, and Tago has remained completely silent on the matter. The planks of the ship are covered with plates of enchanted living crystal of a gray-blue color, which not only makes the ship hard to see in the sky, it makes the vessel impervious to most forms of fire and resistant to magical attacks. The ship is completely revolutionary in its design, sporting a broad forecastle bristling with weapons, followed by a long sleek body jutting with masts for sails. It is said to be one of the fastest ships in the sky.

For weapons Air Wolf carries five mounted and swiveling Thunderbolt Throwers on each side of the aftcastle, ten in total. These weapons are capable of punching through the stone hulls of much heavier vessels such as Theran Kilas and Behemoths. In the forecastle, it carries a pair of Fire Cannons mounted to either side. There are a number of mounted ballista on the ship which use heads made from living crystal, greatly increasing their ability to punch through even thick stone hulls. Additionally the crew has a number of spear throwers mounted along both sides of the ship, each powered by kernals of True Air allowing them to fire great distances. It is said they have crafted special spear heads for these out of kernals of elemental fire, which cause them to explode with ferocity on impact. Yet, the most dangerous weapon aboard Air Wolf is the fact that it can carry as many as 200 Crystal Raiders. The deadly combination of its unmatched speed and manuverability, along with the assault capabilities of so many Crystal Raiders, Air Wolf can easily drop huge numbers of Raiders aboard an enemy ship without that ship beign able to prevent it. This allows Air Wolf to seldom even need to use its impressive compliment of weapons in most engagements. For defense the ship also has a unique form of Fire Sheath capable of blocking incoming fire based attacks.

Air Wolf was orignially designed to take out heavy stone Theran vessels such as Kilas and Behemoths. To do this, the vessel uses its great speed to fly past these vessels loosing volleys from its ranged weapons. The speed of the ship makes it very difficult to hit, and the hull itself somehow nullifies most damage. Against such large, slow vessels, Air Wolf has proven to be very effective. Its only weakness is that the Thunderbolt Throwers are one shot devices… so it would not have use of them in a prolonged engagement where they were all already fired. Once used, the ship would be down to using its crew, speed and other weapons to continue the fight, or escape.

The vessel is commanded by Rorik Steelskul, the son of Tago. Luckily for most Barsavians, Air Wolf has never been seen raiding the skys over Barsaive, other than against Theran interests. It is rumored that this is at the request of Tago himself.